'Game of Thrones' Season 5: Kristian Nairn and Other Cast Not Appearing?

HBO's 'Game of Thrones' has alarmed readers of George R.R. Martin's books from the very beginning, if only that the fantasy-drama adaptation might catch up with, or surpass Martin's notoriously long writing process. Now, as season 5 continues shooting across the world, we may have our first major casualties of that process, as Kristian Nairn (Hodor) says he won't appear in any 2015 episodes.

Take this one with a grain of salt for the moment, though in a recent interview with the Australian Broadcast Corporation, renowned DJ Nairn claimed "We're not actually in Season Five, by the way. We have a season off. We have a year's hiatus...Solely because, I imagine, our storyline is up to the end of the books."

We're getting into spoiler territory here, be warned, though viewers of 'Game of Thrones' season 4 will remember that Nairn's character Hodor (Hodor!) finally succeeded in escorting Bran to the mysterious "Three-Eyed Raven" up north, the last Bran/Hodor storylines of which have been published in Martin's work. "So, I get my year off now to do Rave of Thrones and gallivant all over the world."

Of course, Nairn isn't exactly the authority on whether the full scope of 'Game of Thrones' season 5 would exclude the characters of Hodor, Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) and Meera Reed (Ellie Kendrick), though we have to imagine the actor to have a reasonable knowledge of any shooting expected of him in the future. Additionally 'Game of Thrones' season 4 proved unique in incorporating aspects of Martin's work not yet published, as had been potentially expected of later seasons, though it intrigues that either Hodor, or more likely Bran's storyline would end up halted altogether.